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Too Active to Act

Cultureel activisme na het einde van de geschiedenis

Reprint not available right now

  • Polemic pamphlet about artistic engagement and its effects
  • Contains a graphic novel that addresses the main arguments of the book
  • This publication is only available in Dutch

Author(s): BAVO (Gideon Boie, Matthias Pauwels)
Design: Hendrik-Jan Grievink

2010, Valiz | supported by Mondriaan Foundation, Netherlands Foundation for Fine Arts, Design and Architecture (BKVB), Jan van Eyck Academie | paperback | 160 pp. | 21 x 14,5 cm (h x w) | Dutch | ISBN 978-90-78088-38-7

Table of contents (pdf)
Introduction (pdf)


>Artists, architects, designers, documentary makers and cultural mediators are more and more involved in social debates, from restructuring problem areas and erosion of the public space, to prostitution, mass tourism and gentrification.
In Too Active to Act, BAVO discusses this cultural activism, and its social engagement. Is this type of activism emancipating? Do these ‘cultural activists’ still have political and social power?

Hendrik-Jan Grievink (graphic designer and editor) illustrates the highlights of the argument in a graphic novel.

BAVO is a Rotterdam-based office studying the political dimensions of art, architecture and planning. Among other things, they conduct research on the creative city, cultural activism, and politics.